RPN explained

[Tugdual]

here
Always wondered why I prefer RPN while it is obviously a low level language close to what microprocessors do.

[Dale Reed]

(03-22-2014 12:46 PM)Tugdual Wrote:  here
Always wondered why I prefer RPN while it is obviously a low level language close to what microprocessors do.

Judging from how well drivers can compare two numbers (the posted limit and the speed of their car) and act (or not) based on the result of the comparison, I suspect it's because we're actually smart enough to realize how VERY slightly, if at all, we are "smarter" than the grain of silicon in the microprocessor!

GREAT explanation in that video. Just wish he had used the bigger disks to represent the sums and products, and marked them with "a", "b", "c", "b c *" and "a b c * +"

Takes me back to handwriting assembly code and hand-entering the opcodes and operands with a hex keypad on a MC6800 trainer board in a sophomore EE elective I took in college.

Dale

[Jurgen Keller]

Thanks for that pointer!

Quote:Always wondered why I prefer RPN

• no parenthesis needed
• less keystrokes
• you'll see intermediate results
• efficient programs requiring less memory (was important at those times)
• cool (at least it was at those times)
• ...
  

[Les Bell]

(03-22-2014 07:43 PM)Dale Reed Wrote:  GREAT explanation in that video. Just wish he had used the bigger disks to represent the sums and products, and marked them with "a", "b", "c", "b c *" and "a b c * +"

Ah, but I'll bet he just happened to have that rod and discs from another lecture on recursive algorithms - the "Tower of Hanoi" problem is a classic of the genre.

[walter b]

Very nice find. Thanks for sharing!

d:-)

[Matt Agajanian]

(03-22-2014 07:43 PM)Dale Reed Wrote:  

(03-22-2014 12:46 PM)Tugdual Wrote:  here
Always wondered why I prefer RPN while it is obviously a low level language close to what microprocessors do.

Judging from how well drivers can compare two numbers (the posted limit and the speed of their car) and act (or not) based on the result of the comparison, I suspect it's because we're actually smart enough to realize how VERY slightly, if at all, we are "smarter" than the grain of silicon in the microprocessor!

GREAT explanation in that video. Just wish he had used the bigger disks to represent the sums and products, and marked them with "a", "b", "c", "b c *" and "a b c * +"

Takes me back to handwriting assembly code and hand-entering the opcodes and operands with a hex keypad on a MC6800 trainer board in a sophomore EE elective I took in college.

Dale

What Dale said! I am extremely pleased with that video.

I have even decided to cite that video whenever I want to lead others further, after I give folks my own RPN tutorial.

[BobVA]

My first exposure to programming was an HP-25. Not surprisingly, I found writing assembler for microcontrollers pretty straight forward when I encountered them a few years later.

"Of course, how else would you do it?"